Calzaghe Just Fought Bums And Old Men

The guys Calzaghe beat in Bika, Kessler and Hopkins are STILL world championship contenders or world level contenders.

IF Calzaghe's a fraud, that means that the current SMW and LHW divisions are frauds because Calzaghe's beaten opponents from several years ago are still doing their thang.

IF Calzaghe's a fraud, that makes Ward crap for looking like crap against Bika.

IF Calzaghe's a fraud, that makes Froch crap for being beaten by a damaged Kessler. By extension, that makes all the guys Froch beat in the Super Six into Super Shxt like Dirrell and Abraham as well as Pascal before the tourney.

IF Calzaghe's a fraud, Hopkins beating the crap out of Pascal and being a LHW champion contender means nothing because he's crap too for having a hard fight with Calzaghe. That also makes Dawson even crappier to lose to Pascal.

 

Fraud is an over the top statement and really shouldn't apply to any fighter, let alone one of Calzaghe's standing.

As for the ending of his career, to me it represents a step up in comp and is a decent run, especially to end one's career. But there are warts there too. Lacy, Kessler and Hopkins were all good wins(his 3 best, in no order, IMO) but Hopkins was 43 years old, and a good 3 or 4 years past his already extended prime. Lacy was a good win and Kessler was a very good win.

Jones was, is and has been done on the top level for a long time. It was JC's farewell fight, and that's fine. But it was of no impact to Calzaghe's legacy IMO. Calzaghe himself said RJJ was shot years earlier.

Bika and Manfredo were not the type of guys a long reigning, and now unified, title holder should have been fighting. Bika was borderline.

The reason that I think people object to the claims of Calzaghe's greatness ..... the years prior to unification, the wbo years, were made up of mainly weak title defenses against unimpressive opposition. Even the highlights of those years, the Mitchells, Reids, Woodhalls, weren't great fighters. Although they were pretty good.

You look at Calzaghe's undefeated record, longevity, defenses, etc and it is impressive, but when you watch him fight it doesn't equate. Add in the vast, vast majority of his bouts being in the UK,some really questionable stoppages, and combine that with the long stretch of sub par competition and you can see why people object to the claims of greatness. Fraud takes it a bit too far though. And ward has a ways to go to get to Calzaghe's standing.